Even so, an Orleans Parish jury needed less than two hours Wednesday to convict a 20-year-old New Orleans man on three counts of attempted second-degree murder in the drive-by shooting last year of his former sex partner and two other teenagers.

Key to the prosecution was the testimony of Dijon Brown, now 20, who said she watched Ross as he circled the block three times last May 20, then came around again and opened fire on a Sunday evening at Pauger and North Roman streets. He then put the car in reverse and fired away again, according to testimony.

Bullets hit Brown, Shakira Peters, 16, and Perci Newman, 18, all in the leg area. Neither Peters nor Newman testified at trial, but Brown's 13-year-old brother told the jury he saw Ross fire away from a red car. Lying injured on the street, Dijon Brown identified Ross as "Fred from Elysian Fields." Later at the hospital, she circled his face in a photo line-up, adding the words, "He shot me."

Frederick Ross Jr.

She testified that she and Ross had slept together as recently as the latter part of 2009.

"The only thing tying Fred Ross to this crime is the statement ... by Dijon Brown," he said.

Mordock also argued that the trajectory of the shots made it, at worst, aggravated battery, not attempted murder. Ross originally was booked on one count of attempted murder and two counts of aggravated battery, along with a count of discharging a firearm during a violent crime. The two aggravated battery counts were upped to attempted murder two weeks ago.

Judge Camille Buras said the jury was unanimous on one count of attempted murder -- for Brown's shooting -- and on the gun charge, and voted 10-2 for the other two attempted-murder counts. Two jurors favored lesser convictions for two of the shootings.

Prosecutors Alex Calenda and Sophia Johnson dismissed the notion that the low-flying bullets were not meant to kill. Some bullets flew down the street at window-level, the prosecutors said.

"There is no doubt Frederick Ross tried to kill three teenagers for no reason," Johnson told the jury.

Calenda called Brown courageous for coming forward, saying the other two victims were too scared to confront Ross, who turned himself in four days after the shooting on an arrest warrant. He has since remained in jail.